Thursday, August 14, 2014

The people of Ferguson, Missouri are still in the streets, and they are still angry over the killing of one of the young men from their community.

Now that the protests have made national news, the politricksters and the rest of the usual suspects have descended on the North St Louis suburb to put their two cents into the mix. And this is no longer a local story. Protests are now breaking out all over the country.

The governor says that it looks like a "war zone and that's unacceptable".

"This is a place where people work, go to school, raise families, go to church. A diverse community. A Missouri community. But lately it’s looked a little bit more like a war zone and that’s unacceptable.”

Well, actually, there is no diversity in the power structure of Ferguson, Missouri. The Mayor is white, the city council is mostly white, and the police department is almost all white. Yet, the city itself is 60% black.

So I blame the black folks in Ferguson as well. You have to become engaged politically and take charge of your community. If you do not do that you will have a lot more Michael Browns in the future.

The governor is a democrat, but that doesn't matter. He is a politician, and his main focus is to get elected to office. He is going to take you Negroes for granted because either you don't vote, or because, as a democrat, he thinks that your vote is in the bag.

The truth is, the politician I am feeling the most these days when it comes to speaking out against the injustice that permeates throughout the American justice system, not to mention the out of control militaristic tactics being used by members of law enforcement, is Rand Paul. Yes,that Rand Paul.

It's not enough to tweet "F*ck You" to the governor, you have to be able to look him in the eye and tell him that the power he holds in his office is in jeopardy if he doesn't pay attention to you.

Sticking a few tokens from the police department to march with you shouldn't be enough to make you stop demanding justice. (I see you Capt. Ron Johnson) It's a tactic that that's used time and time again by the politicians to shut you up until the next time.

87 comments:

Damned if you do...
said...

So I blame the black folks in Ferguson as well. You have to become engaged politically and take charge of your community. If you do not do that you will have a lot more Michael Browns in the future.---

But if you do, you will have a lot more Michael Browns running the streets in your future.

You will also drive the last of the white people away, and with them their tax receipts. Same for the businesses.

And, if history serves as a guide, you will have a corrupt, inefficient city government on the road to bankruptcy.

So all in all, isn't it better to keep the white power structure intact, even if it means occasionally some clueless thug wannabe gets shot when he attacks a police officer?

FN parroting Kinky says...The truth is, the politician I am feeling the most these days when it comes to speaking out against the injustice that permeates throughout the American justice system, not to mention the out of control militaristic tactics being used by members of law enforcement, is Rand Paul.

FN said...It's not enough to tweet "F*ck You" to the governor, you have to be able to look him in the eye and tell him that the power he holds in his office is in jeopardy if he doesn't pay attention to you.

Here's the game plan.

Some black people in the community will speak truth to power like you want, and then the democrat party has vice president biden show up and tell all the black people "They're going to put y'all back in chains," to keep blacks scared and beholding to the good democrats for helping them.

"Sticking a few tokens from the police department to march with you shouldn't be enough to make you stop demanding justice. (I see you Capt. Ron Johnson) It's a tactic that that's used time and time again by the politicians to shut you up until the next time.

Let's hope it doesn't work again."

I swear. If the hard white militaristic police doesn't get the job done, then the softer appearing police with a black head will do it.

Either way, it is known that one or the other will work on Blacks. And it looks like it's working. Ron Johnson suddenly appears and is to be in charge. He appears to care about the folks in Ferguson where he grew up....

Such horseshit...But everyone knows it'll work:

Things will calm down and nothing will change as always. Blacks are elated that there is a Negro in charge of the police. Of course, NO Negro has ever been in charge...it just looks like it.

Furthermore, the cop who murdered that 18 yr old teen, will, in all probably, walk free. And Cpt Johnson along with Rev Al Sharpton will ask for calm, as always.(That's another way of saying "stuff your anger").

When that happens it will be interesting to hear what -Window-dressing' Cpt Ron Johnson has to say.

Not surprisingly, big government has been at the heart of the problem. Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies—where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement.

This is usually done in the name of fighting the war on drugs or terrorism. The Heritage Foundation’s Evan Bernick wrote in 2013 that, “the Department of Homeland Security has handed out anti-terrorism grants to cities and towns across the country, enabling them to buy armored vehicles, guns, armor, aircraft, and other equipment.”

Bernick continued, “federal agencies of all stripes, as well as local police departments in towns with populations less than 14,000, come equipped with SWAT teams and heavy artillery.”

Bernick noted the cartoonish imbalance between the equipment some police departments possess and the constituents they serve, “today, Bossier Parish, Louisiana, has a .50 caliber gun mounted on an armored vehicle. The Pentagon gives away millions of pieces of military equipment to police departments across the country—tanks included.”

When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury—national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture—we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.

Given these developments, it is almost impossible for many Americans not to feel like their government is targeting them. Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.

This is part of the anguish we are seeing in the tragic events outside of St. Louis, Missouri. It is what the citizens of Ferguson feel when there is an unfortunate and heartbreaking shooting like the incident with Michael Brown.

Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth.

The militarization of our law enforcement is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm. It is one thing for federal officials to work in conjunction with local authorities to reduce or solve crime. It is quite another for them to subsidize it.

Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous, or false, security. This has been a cause I have championed for years, and one that is at a near-crisis point in our country.

Let us continue to pray for Michael Brown’s family, the people of Ferguson, police, and citizens alike.

Rand Paul runs away when someone comes to speak to him directly. Ask the dreamers. He is a phony.

The Republicans vote like clockwork. Why don't we? Voting is free. Put people in office that will look out for our best interest. Just because someone is Black doesn't make him right. So you wingnuts need to quit yelling Detroit etc.. But for us the only way to lift up those stuck at the bottom is to unite, then and only then is when we will quit being victims.

Be careful what you wish for with your boy Rand. If you check out the Libertarian platform these guys are nuts check this out "Free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems."

These guys wantt o do away with the FAA, EPA, FDA and any and all A's. They feel the market will keep us safe from e-coli and such. You may just get a Rand in the WH, Ayn.

Tonight in Ferguson, the police got their punk cards pulled and finally had to protect an serve their wounded community. Lo and behold, it was as peaceful as a demonstration as has ever happened. It seems that when you treat citizens like citizens, and look for actual wrongdoers doing actual wrongs, there's no cover for the barbarians you'll find in any crowd.

We need to end the police/prison industrial complex, and we owe a debt to the good people of Ferguson for showing us all that it's possible to strike back.

The dude who believes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shouldn't have applied to private businesses? The dude who was best buddies with "The Southern Avenger" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hunter_(radio_host)), until that became too embarrassing an association?

Don't get sucked in by his civil liberties rhetoric. Paul is a major froot loop. If he's your salvation, then you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

This rapid response by the Ferguson police force to defer their role- to a "one Black face" officer from the state- my be necessary due to the next boot that might come as the officer being exonerated of the killing of Brother Brown. Surely after 6 days the story is air-tight.

Stay tuned until tomorrow to find out the name of the officer. Don't expect no charges. If the prime eyewitness has not been questioned with his statements for the record; the officer is not compelled to speak. That one of those amendments that they love to use in the just-us system.

This can be a turning point in history where at long last one Black man was deem valued and worthy to bring charges against an officer of the law.

Please don't want to hear about the numbers of Blacks killing Blacks for this moment. Thugs and gangsters DID NOT TAKE AN OATH to "serve and protect" all people. Now if you want to put the police on the same level as the crooks I will accept your comparisons.

A, this moment of time also can be a moment to plead with our young men to stop with the petty crimes that keep them from being policemen, firemen and EMTs. It is a disgrace in most cities where there is no "represent"*hollered loudly* of men/women of color in these professions that serve my families and yours.

The Black race does not need another NBAer, footballer or singer/dancer to include Oprah and Steve H. Those scenes on TV with the mass amount of Black young only tells me that there is a lotta, lotta people with no hope and jobs. Employed people don't riot. 1096s-yes' 2014-no.

70% population, 3 out of 56 police. What have my people been doing? Leaving everything for someone else to do?

I gotta go with Wesley on this one. Rand was hanging out with his fellow Republican, Steven King, who regularly says stupid racist shit (I know, shocking, a racist Republican) and King got called out for his BS by a Dreamer. Rand got up and left his boy like a bitch. Ha! He couldn't even stand up to a teenaged girl and he wants to run the country? We don't need a punk like that.

"This can be a turning point in history where at long last one Black man was deem valued and worthy to bring charges against an officer of the law."

I dunno if that will happen. For the last six days the Pig department has had their shovels digging for any speck of dirt they can find to magnify out of proportion to justify cold-blooded murder. All I can say is time will tell.

"Please don't want to hear about the numbers of Blacks killing Blacks for this moment. Thugs and gangsters DID NOT TAKE AN OATH to "serve and protect" all people. Now if you want to put the police on the same level as the crooks I will accept your comparisons."

Both Democrats and Republicans have flaws in how they serve the Black community. But, if you think those flaws are proportionate to each other, then I don't think you've been paying attention.

Black people tend to not turn out during midterm elections. If we continue that behavior this November, then we're saying we really don't care when Black boys like Michael Brown are executed by the police. Put down that petition, unlace your marching shoes, and put on your voting boots. Go to the booth and vote!

Anjuan Simmons said..."If we continue that behavior this November, then we're saying we really don't care when Black boys like Michael Brown are executed by the police."

Do you really care when kids like Michael Brown attack a police officer?

Somehow Michael Brown obviously though it was acceptable to walk down the middle of the street and to refuse a police officer's request to use the sidewalk.

So much so that when the policeman pressed the issue, he flew into a rage and attacked the policeman in his car.

Now what happened after that is subject to debate and will be the focus of a federal investigation and probably a criminal trial. Michael Brown may have tried to take the officer's gun; Michael Brown may have been executed for little reason. We will see.

But what of young Mr. Brown's sense of entitlement vis-a-vis his effrontery when asked to use the sidewalk, and his feeling that it was an acceptable response to physically attack a policeman over it?

This seems to be endemic among young black Americans. Do you care about that?

If this cop shot this kid in cold blood, then he should pay the price.

But regardless, when the black community responds to an event like this by making a hero of the victim without acknowledging his possible role in the event, you send a message to every black child that this is how you want them to behave. And that most certainly will result in more tragedies like this one.

Nope anon at 1030, my views on Steven King and Rand Paul are driven exclusively by their stances and past statements. I'm not a member of any political party so you were wrong from the jump. Are you saying you can excuse Rand's hasty departure when a teenaged girl asks simple questions? It's biased to notice this? Ok. At least Steven King manned up and and talked to the girl unlike Speedy.

The cop and Zimmerman are still alive and deemed themselves judge, jury and executioner. Very similar indeed. Young blah men are sentenced to death for transgressions that may have gotten them probation. Got it.

The cop and Zimmerman are still alive and deemed themselves judge, jury and executioner. Very similar indeed. Young blah men are sentenced to death for transgressions that may have gotten them probation. Got it.

Now teach your young ones not to attack people and try to steal their guns and bash their heads against the concrete.

You won't get probation if you try and kill someone or take a cops gun. You just might be killed.

Point is a kid is dead needlessly. If GZ had listened to trained law enforcement officers that kid would still be alive. Don't really care one way or the other about a verdict. A guilty verdict wouldn't bring him back.

Point is a kid is dead needlessly. If GZ had listened to trained law enforcement officers that kid would still be alive. Don't really care one way or the other about a verdict. A guilty verdict wouldn't bring him back.

Point is if the kid wasn't a violent black thug and didn't attack Zimmerman he would still be alive.

It's time people stopped trying to tame beasts by trying to outguess what uncivilized reaction they might perform next.

Yep anon 2:59, you are the problem. You view all of us as non-human. Sad but I expect nothing less from confortable racists. Lemme guess, you're a Republican. Ha! And they wonder why we don't like them. Like Steven King, you guys are way too close to your inner racist.

Point is a kid is dead needlessly. If GZ had listened to trained law enforcement officers that kid would still be alive-----

Not so sure. Trayvon was headed down the wrong road, and there was a good chance he wouldn't make it to ripe old age of 25.

At a minimum, he would have spent the majority of his life in prison. People who jump strangers they think are following them and bash their heads into the pavement trying to kill them don't make it in society.

Yep anon 2:59, you are the problem. You view all of us as non-human. Sad but I expect nothing less from confortable racists. Lemme guess, you're a Republican. Ha! And they wonder why we don't like them.----

When did I say anything should happen to this cop? Talk about fact free. Anon at 3:03 and the one posting as GZ are why I told of my buddy's post about his 15 year old son who is in private schoo, getting good grades and is an overall good kid. Guys like these don't see us as human, only as savages who need to be taken out (lynched) at the slightest incident. This is no different than in the past when we were lynched by white men and the white men would never get any punishment because we must have deserved it. Too bad we only have GZ's version of events to go by but isn't that always the case? Sad, to this day Dr. King's dream of us being viewed as individuals hasn't been achieved. Thanks for your insights anon and GZ.

Southern whites vote like zombies but we see no derision there. Double standards! We have differing opinions but by and large we just don't like Republicans. Voting for an all white party ain't gonna change our circumstances.

My ancestors made Macaroni with tomatoe sauce, they never owned anyone and neither did I.

I reject your all encompassing excuse for everything you have created in the black culture.

YOU and people like you make all this happen. Not the people who notice it and want it to stop. YOU who excuse it and blame it on someone else, when nobody has control but the ones who act like beastly animals.

BIB wrote,Field they alwys wanna distanc themselves from Rape Murder , and Torture, but first to claim the Black Man is the most Violent creature on the Planet..

Meanwhile the weekend Chicago shit show is now underway with a probable in the score box already. You kill each other wholesale in each and every city where you predominate. Yet you wonder why everyone on the planet think you're violent. Go figure.

BIB wrote,Your whole Platform is crying all over this blog like a female every day about shit you have nothing to do with, and cant control.

Please spare me. Now your people are too stupid to figure out what a sidewalk is for. Did you think there was a problem when your "youts" started wearing their pants backwards? Devolution is more likely to harm you than YT. QLB

The announcement was met with immediate disbelief and anger by community members who insisted Brown wasn't the man seen in a security camera video of the robbery.http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/08/15/attorney-dorian-johnson-michael-brown-robbery/14118769/

Your ancestors "made macoroni", huh!? I see, so u are Italian. That explains a lot.

I spelled it correctly, it's macaroni. Are you a lying clown too? Why did you purposely misspell it? I made you look stupid so you had to lie to try and get me back?----

Typical ethnic white person who believes that he didn't benefit from his whiteness.

----

You started blaming me for having ancestors who were slave owners, now you know better and I benefited from being Italian?

Yeah, because Italians believe in parenting and marriage and family and honor . Anyone of us rapes an old lady - WE take them out - you don't. Anyone of us beats up old men and hits women - WE take them out - you don't. We don't make excuses. We tell them not to behave like moolies/eggplants. You make them into moolies. ----

Probably a second or third generation Italian whose grandparents or greatparents came over to Americs and instantly was given a higher status in society than the Negro.

Instantly were treated lower than a Negro, but earned their way out. Just like Indians, Pakis, and all sorts of Minorities of today do, they come in and rise above Negroes quickly. ----

I live on the East Coast, I hear that a lot from Poles, Irish, and Italians." My ancestors didn't own slaves"....

Sounds like you're a lousy friend, always making people you know apologize for your blackness.

TWEET ME

@fieldnegro

Follow the The Field Negro via e-mail.

DISCLAIMER

*COMMENTS, LINKS, AND CUT AND PASTE ARTICLES, ARE NOT ALL ENDORSED BY THE PUBLISHER.

THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

MORE DISCLAIMERS

***The views expressed on this site are the field's and the field's alone. They do not reflect the views of his employer, or any professional or legal organization with which he is affiliated.***

This is a commercial free blog.

Money is nice, but being able to speak my mind is better.

"Real talk: Daniel Rubin has a great little piece up wherein he chats with The Field Negro, the Philly-based blogger who sharply ponders all things black on a daily basis. (Seriously, if you’ve never checked in with TFN, you should: Its author, Wayne Bennett, is a fantastic read who can cut through bullshit like a hot knife through butter, which is a far grosser analogy than I wanted to make, but there you have it.)" ~Philebrity~

"One of the most precocious and hilarious Black political minds on the net. Ive been a long-time fan!" ~Asad Malik~

"..While most of what he writes is tongue-in-cheek, his space is a safe house for candid discussions about race, especially in the comments section, where people of all colors meet."~~Daniel Rubin, "The Philadelphia Inquirer"~~

"To white people, Bennett's musings are like kitchen-table talk from a kitchen they may otherwise never set foot in. To African Americans, he is part of a growing army of black Internet amateurs who have taken up the work once reserved for ministers and professional activists: the work of setting a black agenda, shaping black opinion and calling attention to the state of the nation's racial affairs."

~~Richard Fausset, "L.A. Times"~~~

"That's why I love the blog "Field Negro" so much. Field, as he's known to his fans, has the sense of reality that it takes to call out the (CowPuckey) of blame beating by those who are in positions of power and their lackeys. Because of his handle and his unabashed way of writing about racial issues, Field is often cited as a "Black blogger." What he is, however, is a first-class detector of blame deflection and an excellent student of history. If you want to write about the past and future of repression there's really no other perspective to take - which is why everyone should read Field."

"Half a century after Little Rock, the Montgomery bus boycott and the tumultuous dawn of the modern civil rights era, the new face of the movement is Facebook, MySpace and some 150 black blogs united in an Internet alliance they call theAfroSpear.

Older, familiar leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, are under challenge by a younger generation of bloggers known by such provocative screen names as Field Negro, thefreeslaveand African American Political Pundit. And many of the newest struggles are being waged online."~Howard Witt-The Chicago Tribune~

"I had no idea, for example, of the extent of the African-American blogging world out there and its collective powers of dissemination.But now, after reading thousands of anguished, thoughtful comments posted on these blogs reflecting on issues of persistent racial discrimination in the nation's schools and courtrooms, what's clear to me is that there's a new, "virtual" civil rights movement out there on the Internet that can reach more people in a few hours than all the protest marches, sit-ins and boycotts of the 1950s and 60s put together." ~Chicago Tribune Reporter, Howard Witt~